BACKGROUND: High tibial osteotomy has been recognized as a beneficial treatment for osteoarthritis of the medial compartment of the knee. The purpose of this prospective study was to assess the short-term results of opening-wedge high tibial osteotomies with locked plate fixation. METHODS: From September 2002 to November 2005, fifty-one consecutive medial opening-wedge high tibial osteotomies were performed. The mean age of the patients at the time of the index operation was forty-nine years. The preoperative and postoperative factors analyzed included the grade of arthritis of the tibiofemoral compartment (the AhlbÃ¤ck radiographic grade), the anatomic tibiofemoral angle, patellar height, the Hospital for Special Surgery rating system score, and the Lysholm and Gillquist knee score. RESULTS: Postoperatively, one superficial wound infection occurred. Fifty of the fifty-one osteotomies healed after an average period of 12.9 weeks (range, eight to sixteen weeks) without bone grafts. A nonunion developed in a sixty-two-year-old patient who was a cigarette smoker. The average postoperative tibiofemoral angle was 90 of valgus. Forty-nine patients were followed for a mean of fifty-two months. The average score on the Hospital for Special Surgery rating system was 86 points at the time of the most recent follow-up. The rating was excellent in twenty-eight patients (57%), good in twelve (24%), fair in four (8%), and poor in five (10%). The average score on the Lysholm and Gillquist knee-scoring scale was 83 points. According to these scores, the outcome was excellent in nine patients (18%), good in thirty-one (63%), fair in three (6%), and poor in six (12%). Four knees failed after an average of thirty-six months. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that an opening-wedge high tibial osteotomy with locked plate fixation allows a correct valgus angle to be achieved with good short-term results. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Therapeutic Level IV. See Instructions to Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.

Purpose: Valgus high tibial osteotomy (HTO) is an established procedure for the medial gonarthrosis. In several studies, many negative influencing factors were evaluated. However, until now, the factor 'age' was examined only insufficiently. The aim of our study was to evaluate the factor age in...

Purpose: Early aseptic loosening is a major complication in revision total knee arthroplasty (TKA). It is well accepted that intramedullary stems improve the anchoring of the prosthetic components; however, controversy still exists about the optimal fixation technique of the stems (cementless,...

Background: The best method for managing large bone defects during revision knee arthroplasty is unknown. Metaphyseal fixation using porous tantalum cones has been proposed for severe bone loss. Whether this approach achieves osseointegration with low complication rates is unclear....

Background: Recently, much attention has been directed to femoral component overhang in total knee arthroplasty. The purposes of this study were to describe the prevalence of femoral component overhang among men and women after total knee arthroplasty, to identify risk factors for overhang, and...

Objective To explore the initial effects of the treatment of proximal femoral nail-helical blade (PFNA) in elderly patients with intertrochanteric fracture of the incomplete lateral wall type. Methods A total of 25 patients were enrolled in this study including 8 cases of type A2, 17 cases of...

Introduction: Osteoarthritis of the knee is a common orthopaedic condition. Medial compartment osteoarthritis results from undue stress on the medial compartment of the knee joint following varus deformity. High tibial osteotomy (HTO) has been a long-standing treatment for osteoarthritis of the...